A new beginning
by charming-witch
Summary: Rose Tyler is sent out by the alternate reality's Torchwood to investigate a possibly alien signal. To her surprise someone else is investigating the situation as well. - Rose Tyler, AU 9, 10.5
1. Chapter 1

I had this idea and just had to write it down. I hope someone likes it.

I'm german and my English isn't and probably never will be perfect. I hope I don't make too many mistakes. Feel free to point out errors so I can learn and improve.

I don't have a beta reader. I wish I did, but until I find one you'll have to deal with my mistakes. Sorry! That said, would anyone like to become my beta reader? I'd really appreciate it!

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**Chapter 1:**

Rose Tyler looked around. The whole building was empty. It was a shop, similar to the one she had been working in all those years ago, before she met the doctor and back when she was still living in her own reality. It wasn't far from the shop she worked in either, well, apart from the fact that it was in another reality.

Torchwood had picked up some sort of alien signal. It came from this building. Holding up a small detector Rose followed the signal, trying to find its source.

She probably should have called the doctor to come with her. But things were still a little off between them. He was here for about a month now. He said he loved her and they had kissed. The kiss was amazing and Rose did like him. But he wasn't the real doctor. He wasn't actually the person she had been travelling with. The real doctor was still in the other reality. He simply dropped her off and left her with his clone, or whatever the other doctor was.

Rose wasn't sure what to think of all this. A part of her felt like she finally got what she always wanted. She kind of had the doctor and he wanted to be with her. But it still felt like he wasn't the real deal. He wasn't actually the person she wanted. And the person she really wanted had simply left her, like she didn't mean anything to him.

Rose sighed. Since she was back in this world she had hardly done anything besides trying to figure out what to think about the whole situation. It was why she kept her distance from the doctor. She couldn't be with him unless she was sure that she really wanted to be with him and not the other one.

Pushing away the thoughts Rose went to the basement of the building. She had work to do and since she didn't ask the doctor to come along, like Pete had told her to do, she was on her own and had to pay attention.

Suddenly there were noises. Someone or something was moving, and it was coming closer.

"Hello? Is anyone there?", she called. Maybe she should have stayed quiet, but since the noises were coming closer she guessed whoever was here knew her location anyway.

Rose stuffed the detector into her jacket pocket to get her hands free incase she needed her gun. Then she saw it. Someone was walking towards her. It actually was more than one person. No, it weren't people at all. It were plastic dummies.

"You've got to be kidding me", Rose muttered. This couldn't be happening – again. Well, it was a different building and a different reality, so it hadn't actually happened before. But she had seen moving plastic before and she knew who was behind it. The only problem was that she needed anti-plastic to stop these aliens. Where was she going to get that? Right, the doctor. It looked like she had to call him after all. Hopefully he would be able to make some anti-plastic. Without a TARDIS she doubted that he had any at hand.

Rose was about to reach for her gun to shoot her way out and make a call, when someone suddenly took her hand.

"Run."

Rose glanced to her left, feeling totally surprised and stunned. Her body however reacted instinctively and started running, while her mind still tried to process what was happening.

They stopped in an elevator and the doctor tried to close the doors before the plastic dummies came in.

"I'm having a déjà vu", Rose muttered.

The doctor pulled off a dummies arm and threw it at her after the elevator doors closed.

"You do? Well, you better tell me about it later. Or never." He was quite busy trying to stop the Autons and finding the Nestene Consciousness who brought them to life.

Throwing the plastic arm to the ground Rose stared at the man infront of her. It was him. It really was the doctor. He looked exactly like he did when they first met. He was still the tall dark-haired man with the big nose, big ears and northern accent. A smile appeared on her lips. How she had missed that version of him!

"You're not at all curious about what just happened?", the doctor asked, looking at the blonde woman. She wasn't freaking out, which was a good thing, but she wasn't asking questions either. And now she was smiling?

"Oh I know exactly what just happened", Rose answered with a grin. Then she tilted her head and her smile widened as the doctor raised an eyebrow in an all too familiar way.

"You're not from an alternate reality, are you?", she asked. She had to make sure he wasn't the same man she met back home, when she was 19 years old. But if there was another rip in the walls between universes Torchwood would have picked it up. They were looking for signs of it.

The doctor stared at her unbelievingly. What an odd question to ask. This young woman definitely wasn't like most humans.

"Why would I be?", he asked. Then the door of the elevator opened and he got out.

Rose followed him. It didn't sound like he was from her reality. This was this world's doctor. She was torn between feeling disappointed and excited.

"I know what you're going to do", she the called. "You're blowing up the building to stop them."

The doctor turned to face her. Then he pulled the explosives out of his pocket.

"How did you know that?" Now he really was starting to feel curious about her.

"Just a lucky guess", Rose said with a smirk.

The doctor frowned.

"I need to finish this. You better start running for your life."

"Oh no, I'm not leaving you." Not this time! "I won't let you out of my sight."

The doctor turned to her and then grinned. "I wasn't planning to leave you behind, if that's what you thought. I just don't want you to get blown up by accident." He was way too curious to find out more about this woman to let her die.

Yeah, right, Rose thought. Then why _did_ you leave me behind? It wasn't him. She had to remind herself, that this doctor didn't even know her.

"Wait here. I'll be right back."

He disappeared inside and Rose opened the door to keep an eye on him. No way was she losing him again. The doctor walked a bit further into the building, then placed the bomb on the floor. Turning around he spotted Rose looking in and grinned at her. Then he started to jog towards her. Once at the door he turned around, pointed the sonic screwdriver at the bomb and set the timer off.

"We've got one minute. Run."

Rose didn't need to be told twice. She turned around, glanced down briefly when he took her hand and then started to run, a big smile on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

There was a huge explosion. Rose winced and stopped running. Glancing back she saw the building on fire and grumbling in on itself. It looked so much like it had when it all started. Her life had been ordinary and boring before that explosion. Then everything changed. Would things change now as well? She turned and glanced at the doctor, who was still holding her hand. She probably could just run off with him – again. But did she want to? Definitely! She wanted to travel through time and space again so badly. But this time she wouldn't just leave her mother and Mickey behind. This time she would leave the doctor behind as well. Could she do that? He did it to her, so why shouldn't she? But it wasn't him. This doctor had left everything behind and came to this reality with her. She couldn't just run off without him. She however hadn't even been asked to leave, she thought as she looked at this reality's doctor.

"We need to go. This place will be crawling with police soon and I don't intend to stay for that", the doctor said.

"Me neither. Let's go", Rose answered.

Letting go of his hand she followed the doctor around a corner into a small alley.

"So, you know exactly what happened?", the doctor asked. He wanted to find out if this woman really knew what was going on, or if she had some stupid idea and was further off from reality than she could imagine. She did know he was going to blow the building up however, so it was possible that she actually knew something. But how did she know that?

"Sort of", Rose answered. Things were little different here.

The doctor stopped and stood infront of her.

"Want to tell me what that 'sort of' means?", he asked.

Rose had to smile. The way he was looking at her was just so familiar and she had missed this version of him for so long now. She could hardly believe that she was actually seeing him again.

"I missed that", she said before she could stop herself.

The doctor looked at her confused. "Missed what?"

"The way you look." She gestured at his face.

The doctor's eyes widened.

"You know me", he stated. Since he didn't know her she had to be someone he met in the future, a future companion possibly. That would explain why she knew what he was about to do. But why was she here? It was never a good idea to mess with your own timeline.

"Sort of", Rose said again. "I've travelled with you. Well, not exactly you…"

"A future version of me", the doctor said interrupting her.

"Not exactly", Rose answered. She had travelled with his next regeneration, but it still wasn't really him.

The doctor raised an eyebrow. She really was rather cryptic.

"What's your name anyway?"

"Rose Tyler", she answered smiling.

"Nice to meet you, Rose Tyler. I'm the doctor, but you already seem to know that."

Rose nodded. "Yes, I know. I'm from an alternate reality and travelled with you there." There, she said it. It wasn't that complicated to explain, was it? He was the doctor after all. He'd get it.

The doctor stared at her. He so hadn't expected that. It wasn't that he thought it wasn't possible to travel through realities. He knew that it was. But since the timelords were gone it was dangerous. He sighed. Thinking about his people was a bad idea. He quickly pushed away the sad memories and tried to focus on Rose.

Rose watched him, trying to see his reaction. For a moment he suddenly looked very sad. She had the urge to go and hug him. But then his expression changed and he grinned at her. That was so him. His mood swings really were something!

"My companion from and alternate reality. Well, I have to admit I never met one of those before."

Rose had to laugh at that.

The doctor then started to walk again. He needed to go back to the TARDIS and try to solve the current alien problem.

"So, what brought you here?", he asked when Rose fell into step beside him.

"It's a long story", Rose answered, unsure where to stat.

"It actually was an accident the fist time we got here."

"We?", the doctor asked. Did that mean a version of him from another reality was here, too? But she said that she had travelled with him, which meant that she no longer did that, right?

"The TARDIS landed here. I travelled with your next regeneration and a friend of mine." Thinking about Mickey made her feel sad. She really missed him. They might not have been a couple anymore, but he had become her best friend.

"My next regeneration?", the doctor asked sounding excited. "What will I be like?" He stopped and looked at her intensely.

"Am I going to be ginger?"

Rose stared at him. "What is it with you and being ginger?", she asked rolling her eyes. It was the first thing the doctor asked her after he had regenerated and started feeling better. They had been in the middle of an invasion and he asked if he was ginger!

"Nothing… I just haven't been ginger before."

"Well, you're going to have to wait and figure that out for yourself", Rose stated while starting to walk again.

"Oh come on, tell me."

"As if that's important. There are a lot more important questions! Like where were you when we came here? The Cybermen rose and tried to change everyone on the planet into one of them!"

The doctor glanced at her, still feeling a little irritated that she didn't tell him what he would look like in the future.

"Busy", he answered.

"Is that all you're going to say? The human race was almost destroyed and you were _busy_?" She glared at him unbelievingly. "Luckily this world did have another world's doctor to save them."

The doctor frowned. "Like I said, I was busy lately."

"Busy with what?", Rose asked, stopping again. She crossed her arms infront of her chest and waited. "Go on, tell me!"

The doctor stopped as well and frowned. She really didn't give up. It was a good quality in a companion, but right now he wished she would just let it go.

"I was busy fighting in a war."

Oh, she hadn't expected that answer.

"The time war", she said silently. The look on his face told her that it had to be that war.

The doctor looked at her. She knew about it. They really must have been close in her reality, if he told her about that.

"I'm sorry", Rose said stepping closer and taking his hand in hers.

The doctor looked down at their hands. Somehow her hand in his made him feel a little bit better. He didn't feel that alone anymore.

"What's done is done", he said looking up again. "Nothing we can do about it, unlike the situation at hand. There are some Autons and a Nestene Consciousness that need to be stopped. How about we focus on that?"

Rose nodded. She knew the doctor didn't like to talk about his past and especially the time war.

"Sounds good to me. I hope you have some anti-plastic in your timelord pockets."

"I guess you have met the Nestene Consciousness before."

"Yup, first time I met you", she answered with a grin.

"Really? Looks like it's starting all over again."

Rose's grin widened. That did kind of sound like an invitation, didn't it?

"Come on then, let's get to the TARDIS and save the world."

They turned around another corner and there she stood, the TARDIS.

Rose let out a little squeal. She really missed the TARDIS. It was only a month since she had last been in it, but it felt like years.

Walking inside Rose felt like coming home.

"The TARDIS seems to like you", the doctor said listening o the changing hum of his ship.

"I like her, too. No, I absolutely love her", she stated and hurried over to the console, bouncing on her feet a little.

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**Torchwood:**

The doctor walked out of his lab, where he had been finishing his new sonic screwdriver. It hadn't been easy to find everything he needed on earth, but luckily he was inside of Torchwood and had been granted access to all areas by Pete Tyler, who was now in charge of this world's Torchwood.

"Doctor?", Jackie Tyler called as she came out of the elevator with Tony. She was on her way to pick Pete up.

"Jackie", the doctor greeted and bent down to ruffle Tony's hair. He really liked the kid. He was like a cute little version of Rose. Well, a male version.

Jackie smiled. She liked this doctor. Maybe it was just the fact that he didn't take Rose away from her or that he was more human than the other one. She didn't know and didn't care.

"So, you're already back? What did you find?", she asked.

"Back from where?"

"Checking out that alien signal. Pete said you and Rose went together."

The doctor looked at Jackie a little surprised. "What alien signal?"

"Oh, I guess you didn't go after all. Maybe Rose took Jake then." Jackie shrugged. "Anyway, I've got to hurry. Pete's waiting for me. We're going out for dinner. See ya." She waved and hurried off with Tony.

The doctor looked after her. Then he went into his office and sat down infront of his laptop. He quickly accessed the latest mission files. Torchwood had picked up a possibly alien signal. Rose Tyler and himself apparently went to check it out. Great, she was supposed to take him along, but didn't. She was so distant ever since they left Bad Wolf Bay. He had feared this was going to happen. She didn't think he was the real doctor and didn't want to be with him.

The doctor was pulled out of his thoughts by the TV. He probably forgot to turn it off earlier.

Pointing his new sonic screwdriver at it he turned up the volume to see what had caught his attention. A news reporter was talking about an explosion in the middle of London. Behind her he could see flames and firemen trying to put the fire out. The place looked familiar. He had parked the TARDIS there on the day he met Rose for the first time. Well, it wasn't really him, but the real doctor's former regeneration and it was in another reality as well.

The doctor sighed. Thinking about Rose wasn't a good idea. He had a feeling that things wouldn't end the way he wanted them to. He left everything behind to be with her, but he didn't really get her either.

Looking away from the TV the doctor's eyes fell onto his laptop screen again. Then he froze. There was an address for Rose's mission. He turned back to the TV. If he was right Rose was somewhere very close to that explosion. What were the odds of this being a coincidence? It was more likely that she was right in the middle of whatever happened.

Feeling rather uneasy the doctor pulled his radio out of his pocket. He didn't like to walk around with something stuck in his ear all day, so he didn't wear it. But he had it with him, incase he needed it.

He tried contacting Rose, but didn't get an answer. Oh no, she couldn't be… He didn't even want to think about it. His eyes fixed on the fire on the TV once more. Running his hand through his hair and messing it up in the process the doctor jumped up. He had to get there.

Then he stopped. Phone! He should call her first. Maybe she'd answer her cell.

Pulling his new mobile out of his pocket he dialled Rose's number and waited.

Pick up, pick up, he thought as he paced through the room. He was about to throw the damn phone through the room when it was suddenly answered and he head her voice. Letting out a sigh of relief the doctor sank down into his chair. She was alive.

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**The TARDIS:**

Rose grinned at the doctor, who stepped next to her and started fiddling with the console. Then her cell-phone rang. She was tempted to just let it ring, but decided against it when it didn't stop right away.

Pulling it out of her pocked Rose stepped away a little.

"Yes."

"_Rose. Are you alright? I saw the explosion on the news. And for a moment I thought…"_

It was the doctor, the other one. He sounded really worried.

"Calm down, I'm fine. I have the situation completely under control." She grinned and glanced at the doctor a few feet away.

She thought she heard a sigh of relief over the phone, but couldn't be sure. Had he really been worried? Why wouldn't he be? He was the one who gave up everything for her. He loved her. Suddenly she couldn't wait to see him.

"Listen, can you come here as fast as possible? There's something you need to see." She gave him the address and then hung up.

"Who was that? The boyfriend?", the doctor asked when she came closer again.

"Maybe."

The doctor raised an eyebrow.

"It's complicated", she stated and sighed. "But I'm sure you'd love to meet him."

"Really?", the doctor asked. He somehow doubted that. He had been hoping that Rose would travel with him. He liked her and in her presence he didn't feel that alone anymore. But if a boyfriend was involved… it surely complicated things.

"Definitely. He might answer your question about being ginger in your next regeneration", she said and grinned mischievously.

The doctor eyed her a little surprised. That guy obviously seemed to be from an alternate reality, too. Or he at least had met his alternate self. Either way it might not be so bad to meet him after all.

"If he answers that, I might let him on board", he said with a cheeky grin.


End file.
